NXTCLEAN FUELS AND BIOVERITAS FORM STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO UNLOCK CELLULOSIC WASTE STREAMS FOR LOW-CARBON FUEL PRODUCTION
Collaboration Harnesses the BioVeritas Process™ to Convert Agricultural Residues—Grass Straw, Wheat and Corn Stover—into HEFA-Compatible Feedstocks
HOUSTON, TX and BRYAN, TX—NXTClean Fuels, Inc. (NXT), a renewable fuels project developer and operator headquartered in Houston, Texas, and BioVeritas, LLC, a sustainable fuels and chemicals technology company based in Bryan, Texas, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the development of Biomass Processing Centers (BPCs) in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
The partnership is designed to unlock one of the most abundant and underutilized feedstock opportunities in American agriculture: cellulosic waste and residue streams. Through the proprietary BioVeritas Process™, agricultural residues—including rye and grass straws, wheat stover, corn stover, and other cellulosic materials—will be converted into KEYtones™, a novel class of intermediates compatible with the Hydrogenated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) refining process. This breakthrough enables the production of multiple high-value sustainable fuel products, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), ultralow sulfur renewable US No. 1D diesel, and ultralow sulfur renewable distillate paraffinic marine fuel.
“Cellulosic agricultural residues have been a stranded resource for decades. Our collaboration with BioVeritas gives us a proven, scalable pathway to transform these waste streams into jet and diesel fuel from materials that would otherwise be burned or left to decompose. This is the kind of integrated, feedstock-to-fuel solution the sustainable fuels industry has been waiting for.”
—Christopher Efird, Chief Executive Officer, NXTClean Fuels, Inc.
The HEFA process is currently the world’s dominant pathway for producing SAF and renewable diesel, yet its growth has been constrained by competition for a limited pool of conventional feedstocks—primarily used cooking oil and animal fats. Together, NXT and BioVeritas are addressing this bottleneck at its root.
The BioVeritas Process™ converts cellulosic biomass, specifically the lignocellulosic fractions of agricultural residues that are incompatible with conventional HEFA refineries, into KEYtones™, a clean, distilled, chemically pure intermediate that integrates seamlessly into existing HEFA infrastructure. This means no new refinery technology is required: the same world-class HEFA assets can now process cellulosic-derived KEYtones™, dramatically broadening the feedstock base and increasing the addressable volume of sustainable fuel production.
The resulting fuel slate is broad and commercially significant: Sustainable Aviation Fuel, ultralow Sulfur Renewable US No. 1D Diesel, and Ultralow Sulfur Renewable Distillate Paraffinic Marine Fuel.
“The Pacific Northwest produces millions of tons of cellulosic residues annually. The BioVeritas Process™ reframes these residues as a premium renewable feedstock, and working with NXT allows us to bring that transformation to commercial scale in a region already committed to clean energy leadership. We are not just producing sustainable fuels; we are creating a new, durable supply chain from the ground up.”
—Alan Del Paggio, Chief Commercial Officer, BioVeritas, LLC
BioVeritas is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity, infrastructure, and energy firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy.
About NXTClean Fuels, Inc.
NXTClean Fuels is a next-generation fuels company dedicated to sustainably producing clean, low-carbon fuels. The company’s Port Westward project is a 50,000 barrel-per-day / 750 million gallon-per-year Renewable Diesel (“RD”) / Sustainable Aviation Fuel (“SAF”) refinery in Oregon with easy multi-modal access to the West Coast demand markets. The project has secured State of Oregon permits and is advancing through federal permitting. RD and SAF are high-margin liquid transportation fuels worldwide and there is a global demand for increased supply. To learn more about NXTClean Fuels, please visit www.nxtclean.com.
About BioVeritas, LLC
BioVeritas, LLC, headquartered in Bryan, Texas, is a sustainable fuels and chemicals technology company that unlocks a new class of abundant, biomass feedstocks for existing infrastructure. The proprietary BioVeritas Process™ transforms diverse feedstocks into chemical building blocks for low-carbon fuels and chemicals. For more information on BioVeritas, please visit www.bioveritas.com. BioVeritas, LLC is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a private equity firm specializing in industrial decarbonization investments.
About Ara Partners
Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private markets firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. The firm invests in the middle market across three strategies: Private Equity, Infrastructure, and Energy. The firm scales commercially demonstrated decarbonization solutions, supports the businesses and infrastructure that enable their adoption, and reduces emissions at the source across the conventional energy value chain. Ara’s model combines investing, market and policy expertise, project execution and operational optimization, and rigorous carbon accounting to reduce emissions economically and unlock growth at an industrial scale. The firm operates from Houston, Boston, Dublin and Washington D.C., and, as of September 30, 2025, had approximately $6.6 billion in assets under management.
For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.
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Media Contacts
BioVeritas, LLC
Ruby Nicholson, Carbon & Policy Manager
Email: rnicholson@bioveritas.com
Phone: +1 (979) 246-4686
6150 Mumford Road, Bryan, TX 77807 | www.bioveritas.com
NXTClean Fuels, Inc.
Michael Hinrichs, Communications Manager
Email: michael@nxtclean.com
Phone: +1 (805) 453-1346
110 Vintage Park, Suite 260, Houston, TX 77070 | www.nxtclean.com
